1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to machinery for slowing down cut sheets of paper as they are fed to a stacking station and removal of reams from the stacking station and , more particularly, relates to a slowdown mechanism avoiding conventional overlap and in which more than one ream is collected in a pile prior to removal of the reams.
2. The Prior Art
In the paper-cutting machinery field, it is common for cut sheets to be overlapped or shingled enroute to a stacking or collection station. A problem in high-speed sheeting is to be able to slowdown the sheet sufficiently enough, so as to not have lead edge damage. To do so one necessitates overlapping the sheets where, again, as one goes up in speed, a limit is reached when the overlap approaches 100% and the maximum overlap speed reaches 250-350 fpm. High speed also causes a problem of air in the stacking pile and jog, making handling of the reams difficult and high quality hard to achieve.
The overlapping or shingling operation is usually performed by high and low-speed tape systems. The speed of the leading sheet is reduced as it is fed to the low-speed tape by some suitable means, such as a stop roll. One example of this stop roll shingling process is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,554,534, where a snapdown roll is also disposed upstream of the stop roll to defect the tail ends of sheets passing into the low-speed tape down and out of the way of the next oncoming sheet being delivered by the high-speed tape system.